Committee Members Attending

Dave Watterson (President)
Jeanne Glass (Vice-President)
Bernhard Lindner (Vice-President)
Jacqueline Pante (Secretary General)
Thomas Kräuchi (Treasurer)

Advisers:

Tatyana Alahverdzhieva
Zeljko Balog
Mitze Chapovski
Wolfgang Freier
Franka Stas

Also Present

Jaroslav Kolcava (President of the Czech UNICA Committee)
Tatyana Alahverdzhieva (Friends of UNICA)
Wolfgang Freier (UNICA Patronage)
Serge Michel (IFTC Liaison)
Odilon Dubost (Translations)
Romy Van Krieken (Translations)
Stefan Eich (Translations)
Hana Staňková (Translations)

Not Present

Paweł Łęski  (Adviser)
Rolf Mandolesi (Adviser)

Members Present

Andorra
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Netherlands
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
South Korea
Spain
Switzerland
United Kingdom

1. Opening address by the President of the Congress

Welcome by the Chairman of the Congress Ing. Jaroslav Kolcava.

Odilon Dubost, Romy Van Krieken, Stefan Eich and Hana Staňková translate the meeting simultaneously into French, German, English and Czech.

2. Verification of the delegates’ authorities

Georgia
Hungary
Norway
Slovenia
Tunisia

Part 2

• Patronage Report
• Film Librarian's Report
• "Friends of UNICA" Report
• Admission of new members

• Modification of the UNICA Statutes
• Proposals by FFCV
• Congress plans for the next three years
• Miscellaneous without a vote
  

Papers

• Committee Report by the General Secretary (PDF)
  
• Treasurer's Report as a pdf
• Auditors' Report as pdf
• ICFT/CICT Liaison Report
• Report of the Friends of UNICA

3. AGM Organisation

Proposals by the Committee:

Approved unanimously.

4. Confirmation of the agenda

The agenda has been sent ahead to all delegates and has been unanimously confirmed by the delegates.

Confimed unanimously.

5. Proceedings of the General Assembly UNICA 2017 in Dortmund (DEU)

The Minutes had been sent to the delegates in November 2017. Subsequently there had been an addendum.

Viorel Ieremie would like to speak about the Young UNICA. The request will be discussed under point "23) miscellaneous, without vote."

The translators asked speakers to stick to one language when speaking.

The Minutes were Approved: unanimously.

6. Address by the President of UNICA

At the request of the General Assembly, the address by the President is not dispatched beforehand, but presented personally by the President during the meeting.

First the President explains why the jury this year is only male. UNICA is not sexist. There were two female jury members, one had to drop out because of other work agenda. The second one has had an operation; her doctor did not allow her to fly. We were lucky to be able to replace them by prof. Martin Štoll from CZE and Mike Whyman from GBR.

The second news is sad news. The Czech filmmaker Petr Lášek suddenly died at the age of 49. He was a great supporter of UNICA and did a lot for the Czech film art. Our sympathy goes to his wife and children.

Communications is my main concern. It is always difficult to communicate in many different languages. Even more if UNICA is held in a country which does not speak one of the official UNICA languages. It’s so easy to make mistakes. Consider that all the preparation of this UNICA has been made by native Czech speakers. Even with the help of good translators confusion can come up. If you consider how much organisation there is behind the scenes, from logistics, arrangements, and the superb technique, would you please give applause to all the people that made this possible.

Another aspect of communication is the information we share with you regularly, either via newsletter and emails or on the webpages. It would be nice if some of you would read them. We depend on you, to reach the people who are not at the UNICA congress, you are the ones who can spread the information and the word about UNICA. We are entering more and more in the social media, we have a Facebook account. It is utterly important to communicate about UNICA and what we stand for and what we do, communicate and share our ideas.

The only other thing I want to say about communication is the shorter the better.

7. Report of the Committee by the Secretary General

The report by Jacqueline Pante had been circulated in advance in three languages and in detail to the National Organisations. (See the pdf here.) She summarizes briefly what the comittee has been doing from one year to the other. A summary of the decisions and topics discussed has been explained in the circulated report to GA 2018.
Thanks to the committee members and their reports. Still having fun with the job of the secretary general, a lot of writing and reading. Thanks to the President and the other committee members.

The President comments the decision to appoint a jury moderator. We are happy that Rolf Leuenberger accepted this duty. The jury moderator is not part of the jury and has a coordination role between organisation, committee and jury.

Applause for Rolf Leuenberger.

Georg Schörner takes the word and thanks for the work so far done. It was great decision to have nominated Jacqueline Pante as Secretary General.

Applause for Jacqueline Pante.

Two suggestions from VÖFA: in future use a consistent title for the congress. Dr Schörner invites the committee to discuss this. VÖFA prefers the name World Movie Contest.

Additional Dr Schörner suggests to keep the designation of Amateur, as we no longer have the young professional category. Some movies seen, are not specifically designated as film school, but doubts arise if they are really made by amateurs.

The President informs that the definition of the UNICA congress is included in the handbook. The discussion about the Amateur defintion will be part of the topic 23)

Approved: unanimously.

Applause for Jacqueline Pante.

8 Report of the Treasurer

The report (in 3 languages) has been mailed previously , the details illustrated today (7.9.2018) to the member organisations. (See pdf here.)

Treasurer - Thomas Kräuchi reported that it had been a positive year. There is a write off of 400€, due to the fact that Andorra has not payed the annual membership fee for two years. If it will not be sorted out by the end of the year, we’ll have to cancel Andorra as a member. Another write off is for the invoice of the CICT, which we are waiting for, for two years now. However, the budget had been met. No major expenses.

There were no questions, so he invited Mr Jan Essing to read the report of the auditors.
Approved unanimously.

Applause for Thomas Kräuchi.

9. Report of the Auditors

Mr. Jan Essing will not read the whole report as the delegates have been sent it. (Click here to see it as a pdf.) The second and first auditors have checked the accounts and the documents of the 2017 financial year of UNICA. All questions have been correctly answered by the treasurer Thomas Kräuchi. There is no need to change anything in the financial report and therefore we advice to discharge the treasurer and the committee.

Approved unanimously.

10. Discharge of the Committee

Approved unanimously

12. Determination of the following year's contribution

The committee proposed to keep the membership fees as they had been in the previous year: 200€, 400€ and 900€ per year.

Approved unanimously

13. Confirmation of the budget

The budget had been set, we assumed that we would be balanced and that we will be able to stick to it. The major expenses could be the purchase of medals. The committee proposed the budget be accepted.

Approved unanimously

14. Report of the Film librarian

Thomas Kräuchi reported, that we have received a new set of the oldest movies for the archive, dated 1933. Spain has digitalized 10 movies which we did not have. There are now 52 digitalized old movies available on request. All lists will be updated. I shall include the 2018 data too and send an email to all delegates as soon as ready. 

15. Report of the "Friends of UNICA"

Tatyana Alahverdzhieva had produced a written report which had been sent to the National Organisations. Additionally she informs that the meeting of the “Friends of UNICA” has been held. Everybody enjoyed it. A new member has been added.

16.  Report on Patronage

It was the first time, that there has not been a written report from Wolfgang Freier. This is his last report.

Mr. Freier reported that we have roughly 12 to 13 patronages, two new ones have been requested. However the patronage is decreasing. He is still convinced, that we shall receive more. He is still convinced that we need more of those, as we speak about UNICA just 10 days a year, but 360 about the patronage. This will hopefully continue.

He thanks UNICA for long lasting collaboration, especially the committee, the delegates for the wonderful moments among UNICA.

Applause for Wolfgang Freier.

The President adds that not very many know that “Wolfi” drives in and around Europe to personally deliver UNICA medals and to make personal contact with the organisers of the Patronage festivals. For sure he will do so even if no longer officially. Please thank him again.

Another applause for Wolfgang Freier.